Straight from the Scullery

Saturday, January 3, 2015

January 3, 1961

After Fidel Castro gained control of Cuba in 1959, relations with the United States took a turn for the worse. Cuba was quite anti-American at that point, to say the very least, and America was concerned that communism in the western hemisphere was just a little too close to home. In 1960, Castro decided to sign a trade treaty with the Soviet Union, and in turn President Eisenhower decided it was time to train a bunch of Cuban exiles to overthrow their leader. Fidel Castro began intensifying his program that nationalized foreign properties and companies, and the US cut back on trading with Cuba. By January 3, 1961, President Eisenhower determined that the best course of action was closing the American embassy in Havana and severing all diplomatic relations.